forget the way she looked. She was tall; she was built; she had an aura of confidence. When she spoke, she spoke with authority, but there was still something that was so warm and genuine about her. Just meeting her was an experience, number one. Number two: everyone who worked for her had this utmost respect. There was no such thing as not listening when Julia spoke. There was no such thing as secondguessing Julia – mainly because you knew she knew what she was saying, and you had faith that she knew. So, there was no doubt that she was the leader. There was no doubt that she was there to provide the kind of leadership she thought we all needed – and every one of us felt loved, every one of us. She had a way of touching each and every one of us. And that was really difficult to do because there were many of us who worked in that program – but, some way, she was able to stop by your office or you would see her – or even in meetings, you could feel her presence. I really only knew Julia two years prior to her leaving but she embraced me instantly and took an interest in who I was, and what I wanted to be, and she found time to share with me. And not just with me, with all of us (Coates, 2008, p.5).
There was no doubt that she was there to provide the kind of leadership she thought we all needed – and every one of us felt loved, every one of us. Roberta Coates recalling Julia Davidson She was a protégé to whom her graduate advisor, Dr. Thomas Magoon, could and did entrust the development and direction of a new program that would be proposed as an extension of the Upward Bound program. When Dr. Davidson arrived at Maryland in 1967, Dr. Magoon was Associate Dean for Special Student Services, Director of the Counseling Center and Professor of Education. He was one of the three faculty members in the Counseling and Personnel Services (CAPS) Department who had brought the Upward Bound Program to the University of Maryland and established it in the Counseling Center. He was Dr. Davidson’s advisor in CAPS. Because the Upward Bound program was administered by the CAPS Department, with the support of the Counseling Center, Dr. Davidson was also a member of Dr. Magoon’s part-time counseling staff assigned to Upward Bound. Dr. Magoon knew how to leverage talent and opportunity for new purposes. Although she had only been with Upward Bound for a year, Dr. Magoon recruited Dr. Davidson to work with him, Dr. Arthur Adkins, Dr. Stanley Pavey and Dr. George Marx, in creating what would eventually be known as the Intensive Educational Development program. After the new program had received institutional approval, both Dr. Davidson and Dr. Magoon took leaps of faith when he created and she accepted a temporary position that would be responsible for coordinating the new program. As director of the Counseling Center, Dr. Magoon knew that one of his counselors would be on leave during the academic year 1968-1969. This represented an opportunity and a funding source simultaneously to meet an immediate need and gain time to design a more regular arrangement for staffing the new program. Thus, Dr. Davidson was moved from her position as director of counseling in the Upward Bound program to become a counselor-instructor in the Counseling Center.
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